Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The damaging effects of the “indoctrination” accusation

Someone I love dearly told me recently that I indoctrinate
students when I teach Native American rhetorics. That, in fact, every time I
talk about it, post about it, publicly proclaim about it, that I am
indoctrinating people.

Let’s take a look at this word, “indoctrination.”

I’m going to take a page from the college student handbook
and include a dictionary definition here:

So, my profession has been conveniently boiled down to this
negative assumption; an accusation oft thrown around by conservatives and
anti-education folks. I am fascinated to know that I teach my students to fully
accept the ideas, opinions, and beliefs of Native Americans without any
consideration of others’ ideas, opinions, and beliefs. (And ignoring the fact
that, as a group, “Native Americans” are a varied bunch with many diverse
opinions on a wide variety of subjects.) Of course, that’s not at all what I
do, but let’s just go with that for now.

Where exactly does this accusation come from? A simple
Google search for “college professors indoctrinate students” had 974,000 results,
some of which are linked here:

Clearly, this accusation of indoctrinating students is
coming from the political Right. My personal opinion as to why this is the case
has to do with the Right’s persistent refusal to accept that students are
capable of making up their own minds and thinking for themselves when it comes
to fraught political or social issues, such as gay marriage, abortion, and in
my case, Native American sovereignty, history, cultures, contemporary issues. Okay
then.

So, we know this accusation exists in the national
conversation. We also know that this assumption exists in the personal spectrum
when people who believe that we indoctrinate become personally involved with us
as friends, colleagues, partners. Let’s take a look at the damaging effects of
this accusation.

First, being accused of indoctrinating students undermines
my professionalism, my goals as a professor, and dismisses the import of what I
actually do in a classroom. Like most simplifications, it renders a complex and
sometimes difficult task down to a very negative and easy process. It also
makes huge assumptions about the gullibility and malleability of college-aged
students. How quaint to think that my room full of 18 – 21 year olds are so
easily swayed to my perspective, my point of view, my opinion; that they, in
fact, have no opinions or perspectives of their own. Hence, this accusation not
only undermines my professionalism, it also assumes that people in college are
empty vessels waiting to be told what to think. And in my professional
experience, that assumption is quite far from reality.

Second, accusations of indoctrination evidence a deep
disrespect for my profession and for me personally. This accusation, in one
simplistic swoop, tells me that the subject I care about deeply enough to
invest money, time, and energy into learning about in order to teach students
the wide variety of issues inherent in that subject, does not matter, is not
worth my time or my students’ time, and is certainly the wrong thing to be
teaching.

Third, the accusation of indoctrination puts professors on
the defensive. It certainly put me on the defensive. I take what I do very
seriously – and personally because of all the time, money, and energy I’ve
expended to get here. Putting people who have worked so hard and care so much
about a subject on the defensive is an effective strategy because it shifts the
focus away from the real problem: that students need to be exposed to a
multitude of opinions and information in order to form their own opinions about
the world.

And here’s my final word on this for now: If students come
away from college with different opinions than yours? That doesn’t mean they
have been indoctrinated. It means they were presented with a broad spectrum of
information and opinion that you may have never seen, and they decided for
themselves what to think. The process of college is scary to some people because
it does influence how people think about subjects and realities in the world.
But I am tired of being on the defensive – it is exhausting. I know what I do
in my classroom and most people have no idea. I invite any of my readers to
come to my classrooms and observe for a day. Just a day should be enough to
demonstrate how misguided this indoctrination accusation really is.

1 comment:

Perhaps this is based on my own personal area of interest, too, but I would add to the second point. In addition to suggesting that our areas are not worth teaching, when we are accused of indoctrinating our students we are also told (albeit silently), "You are to understand that X is the wrong thing to teach, but Y is fine." And "Y" tends to be something in-line with cultural (read: hegemonic) ideology. (I'm sure the historian from my defense just screamed somewhere--she hated when I used the word "hegemonic.") But here's my point: I'm not entirely certain a hegemony actually exists. But I am certain people exist who wish a hegemony exists (or who are delusional enough to believe it absolutely does). And I do believe those wishful thinkers tend to be the ones who proclaim that we are indoctrinating our students.

I had a student complain on an evaluation once that I was a "preacher, not a teacher." Fine. Whatever. Maybe I can come off as preachy when lecturing on the virtues of a cleverly crafted thesis statement. But I have never, not once, told a student that he or she could not ascribe to a different belief set from mine.

The good teachers are passionate people. We care about our subject matter, and we care that our students get it. Some people interpret passion as indoctrination, and frankly I believe those are the people who are in desperate need of an English lesson.

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About Me

Currently an assistant professor at a university in Pennsylvania. I started working professionally at 18 and got my BA over eight years (part-time), spent six years obtaining my MA and PhD. I've worked in radio, advertising and most recently spent 10 years as a freelance journalist before returning to academia. I have no regrets and have learned something from every experience I've ever had, both good and bad.